The legacy of the Sinagua culture surrounds you during a visit to Montezuma Well. Formed long ago by the collapse of a limestone cavern, over one million gallons of water a day flow continuously into the Well. This constant supply of warm, fresh water provides an aquatic habitat like no other in the world, and has served as an oasis for wildlife and humans for thousands of years.

Visitors to the well often let their minds wonder off to a time long ago as they observe the cliff dwellings perched along the rim. If you are one of these visitors that are fascinated with the ancients that lived in our valley, you won’t want to miss the Montezuma Well History & Mythology talk taking place at The Well Red Coyote. This talk, featuring local author and former guide Robert DeMayo, takes place on Saturday April 27th, 2013.

Follow your imagination and let Robert guide you into the distant past.

Robert DeMayo enjoys a strong connection to Montezuma’s Well and the sacred quality and mythology of it. He will talk about the Well and the mythology of the Yavapai-Apache origin myth, which he combined in his novella, The Cave Where the Water Always Drips.

The Cave Where the Water Always Drips, combines legends of lost treasures and forgotten gold mines with local creation myths. The inspiration for the book stemmed from the folklore surrounding Montezuma’s Well, a flooded sink hole located in Rimrock.

The Yavapai/Apache creation legend begins there, when someone did something wrong and it flooded, causing everyone to die except a young woman named Kamala. The legend states that while the water rose the village united in sealing Kamala in a hollow log so she alone would live.

“There was something very spiritual about that place, and maybe a little dark,” said DeMayo. “Looking down at the moon reflecting in the still water, one naturally asks; what could someone have done that would make their god angry enough to kill all but one? Or what could have been so special about Kamala that they all worked together to save her life—while everyone around them drowned? This story offers a suggestion as to what might have happened to the young girl who had to live alone after everyone died—I believe in every story there is a kernel of truth, and I wanted to explore it.”

Robert has traveled throughout the world, searching through every ruin he could find, always curious about the early people and their myths, and always obsessed with lost cities and forgotten treasures. To date he has traveled through over 100 countries, crossing most of them overland—Africa three times. When he moved to Sedona, he worked initially as a guide for A Day in the West exploring the high desert as a jeep tour guide. He learned the local legends so he could share with tourists what it must have been like to live in this area in prehistoric times. He will share those stories and what he’s learned about those early people with us during this talk. For more information on this Sedona event please visit The Well Red Coyote.